By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Information Regulator (IR) has launched an urgent interdict application to stop the Department of Basic Education (DBE) from publishing the 2024 matric results in newspapers.
The matter came before the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Tuesday, when the court heard arguments on urgency only.
The DBE and AfriForum opposed the application and argued that there was no prejudice to the public if matric results were released and that the urgency was self-made.
Matric results are expected to be announced by the Minister of Basic Education Siviwe Gwarube on Monday.
Judge Ronel Tolmay heard legal arguments by the IR pertaining to its submissions that the matter is urgent.
The IR maintained that the department has not obtained the go-ahead from the students that their results may be published and the department must issue the results via its SMS line or the learners can fetch it at the schools where they wrote the exams.
The IR must first overcome the first hurdle – urgency – before it can proceed with its case. If the judge ruled the matter not to be urgent, it would follow that the results will be published next week. If she ruled in favour of the IR – that it is urgent – all the parties involved will present their arguments on the facts of the case.
Advocate Kennedy Tsatsawane SC argued on behalf of the IR that the matter is of utmost importance to the learners and the public and thus it is urgent. Judge Tolmay responded that she is fully aware of the importance of the case but she questioned why she should deal with it on an urgent basis.
The judge pointed out that the historical position over the years was that the results were published in the media and she questioned who would be prejudiced if this was the position again regarding the 2024 results.
She said she was concerned that there was a pending appeal by the department against an enforcement notice the IR issued against the department in November last year, in terms of which it was ordered not to publish the 2024 results.
The IR said that after an assessment done in 2023, it was found that publishing the matric results will go against the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA).
Judge Tolmay also pointed out that this urgent application before her deals with complex issues such as POPIA, and the urgent court is not the forum to deal with these issues.
The court in 2022 ruled in favour of publishing the matric results in the media, following an application at the time by a learner. This was after the department that year considered not to publish the results.
AfriForum legal counsel Advocate Quintus Pelser SC said the matric results have been released from 2022 without the names of the pupils and there hasn’t been any public uproar or complaints.
“If there was real prejudice as a result of the publishing of the examination numbers, then a prudent applicant would’ve stepped forward and said I must stop this thing,” Pelser said.
Judgment will be handed down on Wednesday at 11:30.